'Cricket' smart alarm helps you find your bike

To help keep your bike locked up safe, a tiny new device can send an alarm to your iPhone if someone so much as touches it. Plus if your bike does get nabbed, it can hunt it down using the cloud.

Although not technically a lock, the Cricket, currently running an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign, is the latest technology for securing bikes, along the lines of newly released smart lock devices Lock8 and BitLock.

Billed as a “silent” bicycle alarm, the Cricket is 30 mm wide and 9 mm thick and attaches to your bike with a strap. Via Bluetooth 4.0, it connects to your iPhone to help you keep tabs on your bike up to 50 meters in range. Also, thanks to its internal three-axis MEMS Accelerometer, the Cricket can detect when your bike has been moved and can send a push notification to your smartphone that triggers an alarm that sounds like a cricket chirping. If your bike is stolen, other Cricket users can help track your bike's location via the device's beacon and can notify you when it's within range.

The Cricket uses a replaceable coin cell battery that the company claims can last a year. Price is $39 for early supporters, with shipping set for March 2014.

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Another new device for bikes is the Lock8, launched last week at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe 2013 in Berlin. The sensorized gadget connects to your bike's frame, and to a mobile app to lock and unlock the bike once the lock chain is connected. If the sensors detect any foul play, Lock8 can trigger a 120-decibel alarm to scare thieves away, while also notifying owners via push notifications and tracking the bike's movement via GPS.